William Orr (New Mexico)
William Orr (Democratic Party) ran for election to the New Mexico House of Representatives to represent District 27. He lost in the Democratic primary on June 2, 2020.
Orr completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
William Orr was born in Nashville, Tennessee. He earned a B.S. from Stanford University in 1968 and an M.D. from Tulane University School of Medicine in 1972. Orr’s career experience includes working as a geriatrician in private practice, as a health care executive, and as a health care consultant for seniors.[1]
Elections
2020
See also: New Mexico House of Representatives elections, 2020
General election
General election for New Mexico House of Representatives District 27
Incumbent Marian Matthews defeated Robert Godshall and Jason Barker in the general election for New Mexico House of Representatives District 27 on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Marian Matthews (D) | 51.0 | 8,818 | |
| Robert Godshall (R) | 48.9 | 8,460 | ||
| Jason Barker (Independent) (Write-in) | 0.1 | 21 | ||
| Total votes: 17,299 | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for New Mexico House of Representatives District 27
Incumbent Marian Matthews defeated William Orr in the Democratic primary for New Mexico House of Representatives District 27 on June 2, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Marian Matthews | 69.0 | 2,845 | |
| William Orr | 31.0 | 1,280 | ||
| Total votes: 4,125 | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Republican primary election
Republican primary for New Mexico House of Representatives District 27
Robert Godshall defeated Jill Michel in the Republican primary for New Mexico House of Representatives District 27 on June 2, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Robert Godshall | 53.6 | 2,046 | |
| Jill Michel | 46.4 | 1,774 | ||
| Total votes: 3,820 | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Campaign themes
2020
Video for Ballotpedia
| Video submitted to Ballotpedia Released May 6, 2020 |
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
William Orr completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Orr's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I am a physician, a geriatrician. I started my practice here in New Mexico with the Indian Health Service where I became interested in the problem of health of seniors, so I began work as a geriatrician in Denver. There, I was a lead in developing a specialized health care system for seniors (PACE) whose goal was to prevent nursing home placement. I then assisted in its development here in Albuquerque. I moved back to Albuquerque to take a job with an insurance company that was managing the New Mexico Medicaid Health program as a Medical Director. My goal has always been, and continues to be: how to make health care work for everyone and that we all have access to affordable care and providers feel that they are able to do their job without excessive paperwork. I want to continue that goal as a legislator. I want to be "The Doctor in the House." I am married for 33 years with 3 children, a son in Seattle, and 2 daughters, one in Palo Alto and the other in Boston. My interests are gardening and biking where I hope to continue to participate in the Senior Olympics.
- Health Care -I want to put my knowledge of health care to work for New Mexicans and help create affordable and accessible health care for all of us.
- Education is the cornerstone for the long-range future economic growth for New Mexico. Funding must remain a priority
- Environment - we must deal with the conflict of the revenue we derive from oil and gas with its inherent destructive impact on our environment
My goal is to make New Mexico thrive and public policy will always play a key role for that goal. Health Care is obviously my area of expertise and I am excited for the opportunity to play a role in the Health Care Public Policy. As someone trained in science, I would put my medical knowledge to good use in discussion on Environmental Policies and issues. Finally, I have had some voters express to me a lack of trust that our government always works in the interest of our citizens. I would want to work on making elections safe and fair, mandating that redistricting is non-partisan and that we have a strong independent ethics committee so that the citizens can feel more confident in the workings of the legislature.
The Gettysburg Address
Integrity, honesty, willingness to work with others and a clear vision of goals.
Smart, kind, thoughtful, friendly, witty
Be knowledgeable about the legislative issues, be available and listen to your constituents and be honest about your positions and votes.
My work in developing models for care for seniors so that there are options always to live in their own residence.
With distinct memories was the assassination of President Kennedy. I was 17 and a senior in high school. I was also the student body president so felt responsible for lowering the flag to half-mast as soon as his death was announced. The entire Thanksgiving weekend was spent watching the TV and the surreal quality of the shooting of Oswald by Jack Ruby. Although now I know that Kennedy was a flawed figure, then his youth and speeches seemed to give us hope for the future and a vision of a better world. I am not sure that anyone since has really done that.
Winnie the Pooh - teaches value of friendship and the diversity of friends
Work/life balance. I have always become passionate about my work and strive to do a superior job.
Length of term and size. The NM House is 50% larger and is elected every 2 years. Therefore, it better reflects the current political climate as the Senate is only elected every 4 years. The Senate here is more conservative
Not necessarily, since I am running without any political experience. The legislature needs individuals that represent society as a whole from different economic and employment backgrounds as well as ethnic and religious diversity. The one requirement is that they all be committed to making the State better and be open to constructive dialogue about how to make the necessary legislation to make the State better.
New Mexico is a poor state with multiple issues. We have to grow and diversify our economy and not be dependent on the extractive industries which provide inconsistent revenue at significant environmental costs. However, we need to build our infrastructure of education and health care so that businesses will want to have their families here and revised our tax code so it is equitable to all. There is not just one challenge but multiple and they are all tied together.
The Governor needs to provide a vision and leadership on how to get where she wants to go. The legislature will have multiple different visions but should take the Governor's blueprint as the starting point for discussions. The Governor should have a sense of what can and probably cannot pass. If the Governor presents only items that the legislature will refuse, that lack of working relationship will bring continued stalemate to the State. The key issue, again, is willingness on both sides to come to an agreement as to final version of the blueprint.
A successful legislator has to be able to state what he wants to accomplish but then understand that those accomplishment will only occur by forming relationships with other legislature. Being antagonistic is not going to accomplish producing constructive legislation for the State.
Health; Education; Elections and ethics
I have no desire to be part of the leadership but would be willing to help in whatever way they saw fit. If i saw a vacuum in leadership, I would work for new effective leadership.
Currently, the Governor is acting strongly and appropriately, explaining her decisions and the science and rationale behind the decisions and presenting these facts in an open and engaging manner. It is that kind of leadership that I would like to emulate.
I heard from one constituent that he thought the government was filled with crooks and didn't trust anyone. MY goal would be to restore his faith in our government by working to make it open and "clean" so that he could, again, feel his government was working for him
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
2020 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on May 6, 2020
